ASEAN member state Myanmar confirmed its first case of the coronavirus disease on 23 March. The outbreak seemed under control, with authorities reporting less than 400 confirmed cases by mid-August. Unfortunately, new cases have soared in recent days. Today, Myanmar has reported over 1,000 infections.According to local media, Myanmar’s COVID-19 cases have skyrocketed nearly 200 percent in the past two weeks.

A lockdown in Myanmar's conflict-stricken Rakhine was expanded late Wednesday to the entire state, halting the movement of more than three million people as the number of coronavirus cases steadily climbs.More than 100 new infections were confirmed across Myanmar in 36 hours - the largest jump so far - bringing the total to 580, with most new cases in the northwestern state.Rakhine is one of the poorest states in the country, with substandard healthcare facilities and a lack of access to

A group of Rohingya say they were beaten by traffickers and drank their own urine to stay alive on a perilous four-month journey at sea until their dramatic rescue near the Indonesian coast.The bedraggled survivors - about 100 in all, mostly women and children - described a high-seas horror story that saw them reduced to throwing the dead overboard as their rickety craft drifted thousands of kilometres towards Malaysia.Two survivors claimed that people smugglers paid to transport them had bea

Myanmar's military has conceded its troops abused prisoners in Rakhine State after a video of soldiers battering blindfolded detainees spread on social media - a rare admission of wrongdoing by a force often accused of acting with impunity.The video, which emerged on Sunday, shows plain-clothed men punching and kicking the heads of handcuffed and blindfolded detainees.The five detainees had been arrested on suspicion of being Arakan Army (AA) insurgents and were being transferred to Rakh

Myanmar's military must be investigated for possible "war crimes and crimes against humanity" as a conflict with rebels in the country's northwest ramps up, a United Nations (UN) rights expert said Wednesday.The military is locked in an increasingly bloody civil war against the Arakan Army (AA), an insurgent group fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.Scores have been killed, hundreds wounded and some 150,000 people have fled their homes since the fightin

Hundreds of thousands of people displaced by conflict in Myanmar face a health "catastrophe" from the coronavirus pandemic, a rights group warned, as international calls grow for an end to fighting. Overcrowded camps with an estimated 350,000 people were "COVID-19 tinderboxes", Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

Around 20 children were injured Thursday when mortar fire hit a primary school in the northern fringes of Myanmar's Rakhine state, an area where the military is locked in battle with Arakan Army (AA) rebels.The attack happened in Buthidaung township, one of several areas in lockdown, and it is not clear who was responsible.Scores of civilians have been killed, hundreds injured and some 100,000 displaced since January last year when both sides stepped up operations.The AA claims to be fig

The ASEAN Post recently ran a story on the world’s longest internet shutdown in the northern part of Rakhine State in Myanmar and the concept of digital rights as a legitimate human right.

Nearly 200 Rohingya Muslims arrested at sea last month by Myanmar's navy after a voyage of hundreds of kilometres have been sent back to Rakhine state, officials said Monday.Seasonal calmer waters have seen an increase in the number of Rohingya putting their lives in the hands of traffickers in a desperate bid to reach Malaysia or Indonesia by boat.But few make it as far as Kawthaung, Myanmar's southern-most tip, where the group of 173 were picked up mid-December.Images taken on Mon

An official from Aung San Suu Kyi's political party was killed in Rakhine state after planning a show of support for the leader's defence of Myanmar against genocide allegations at The Hague, a spokesman said Thursday.The National League for Democracy's (NLD) Ye Thein, party chairman in Buthidaung township, had been held for weeks by the Arakan Army, insurgents fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.The rebels said he was killed in military attacks on Christmas